HP is in da house!
Finally! I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night (well, this morning, really, sometime around 2 a.m.) and so started on the final book (HP and the Deathly Hallows) over breakfast. I'm only 17 pages into it and already I'm hooked. J.K. Rowling is a fantastic writer, and even though I'm barely into Deathly Hallows I can't wait to see what she comes out with now that Potter's finished.
Reading all seven back to back has been great, but I'm noticing that it's coloring how I view the world and even my vocabulary. I'm now predisposed to call the trashcan the "dustbin" and am even referring to some people as Muggles. You Muggles, you know who you are. I told M that Max and Tachi are animagi (or animaguses...what's the plural?), which is a wizard who can transfigure into an animal at will. He got a kick out of that and has been calling Max "animagus" ever since. The other day I called someone a "complete git," and, not being British and all, I don't even know precisely what that means, but it sounded good.
While I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, like many others, I'd like to clarify that I'm not a Harry Potter Freak. And by Freak I mean those folks who, like Trekkies, feel it necessary as adults to parade around in costume and who believe they really do live in a land of make-believe. Stef, Nicole, M and I went to a Borders in A2 the night Deathly Hallows was released, simply to see it. "It" being, of course, Potter Mania. Figured with this being the last book and all, it was my last chance to see some of the hype. The kids were great...I love love love to see children taking such an interest in reading in this day of television and video games. What's not adorable about kids dressed up as Harry and Hermione and even the Weasley twins, excited because yet another book about their favorite characters is coming out?
The adults, however, who were there by themselves with lightening bolt scars Sharpied onto their foreheads, who had a distinctive otherworldly (and not in a good way...I mean like they live on another planet) air about them freaked me out a bit.
I was reminded of that old SNL skit where William Shatner attended a Trekkie convention and yelled at the crowd full of Spocks and Scotties to get a life. Great skit, that.
Now that I've done my HP Freak rant, I do wholly recommend reading them, no matter what your age. The characters are well-developed, the plot lines are interesting and exciting, and it's hard to put them down. There are things in there for every age, which I think is what has contributed to the overwhelming success of the series. Parents and grandparents don't mind at all reading them with their children and grandchildren. It's like a grand book club for the ages.
I'm thrilled that I've managed to avoid all media and other HP readers who might've spoiled the ending of this last book. (That is not an open invitation to any of you to write in with spoilers...if you do, I'll Bat-Bogey Hex you. Or something like that.) There are several folks here at work who are reading it as well, and my plan is to fly through it like I did the others so as to finish first, thereby ensuring no spoilers ruin it. Wish me luck!
(P.S. I just looked up "git" in the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary, and it's British for "a foolish or worthless person." Huh, whaddyaknow...I used it correctly last week!)
(P.P.S. Yes, M, I stayed up until 2 a.m. And I still got up in plenty of time - and with only minor grumpies - this morning. So there!)
Reading all seven back to back has been great, but I'm noticing that it's coloring how I view the world and even my vocabulary. I'm now predisposed to call the trashcan the "dustbin" and am even referring to some people as Muggles. You Muggles, you know who you are. I told M that Max and Tachi are animagi (or animaguses...what's the plural?), which is a wizard who can transfigure into an animal at will. He got a kick out of that and has been calling Max "animagus" ever since. The other day I called someone a "complete git," and, not being British and all, I don't even know precisely what that means, but it sounded good.
While I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, like many others, I'd like to clarify that I'm not a Harry Potter Freak. And by Freak I mean those folks who, like Trekkies, feel it necessary as adults to parade around in costume and who believe they really do live in a land of make-believe. Stef, Nicole, M and I went to a Borders in A2 the night Deathly Hallows was released, simply to see it. "It" being, of course, Potter Mania. Figured with this being the last book and all, it was my last chance to see some of the hype. The kids were great...I love love love to see children taking such an interest in reading in this day of television and video games. What's not adorable about kids dressed up as Harry and Hermione and even the Weasley twins, excited because yet another book about their favorite characters is coming out?
The adults, however, who were there by themselves with lightening bolt scars Sharpied onto their foreheads, who had a distinctive otherworldly (and not in a good way...I mean like they live on another planet) air about them freaked me out a bit.
I was reminded of that old SNL skit where William Shatner attended a Trekkie convention and yelled at the crowd full of Spocks and Scotties to get a life. Great skit, that.
Now that I've done my HP Freak rant, I do wholly recommend reading them, no matter what your age. The characters are well-developed, the plot lines are interesting and exciting, and it's hard to put them down. There are things in there for every age, which I think is what has contributed to the overwhelming success of the series. Parents and grandparents don't mind at all reading them with their children and grandchildren. It's like a grand book club for the ages.
I'm thrilled that I've managed to avoid all media and other HP readers who might've spoiled the ending of this last book. (That is not an open invitation to any of you to write in with spoilers...if you do, I'll Bat-Bogey Hex you. Or something like that.) There are several folks here at work who are reading it as well, and my plan is to fly through it like I did the others so as to finish first, thereby ensuring no spoilers ruin it. Wish me luck!
(P.S. I just looked up "git" in the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary, and it's British for "a foolish or worthless person." Huh, whaddyaknow...I used it correctly last week!)
(P.P.S. Yes, M, I stayed up until 2 a.m. And I still got up in plenty of time - and with only minor grumpies - this morning. So there!)
posted by Amy at 10:42 AM
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